Comments on: Keeping iTunes rating info in sync

Question: Keeping iTunes rating info in sync

your mildly obsessive average geek — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 23:11:27 -0800

Is there a way to keep ratings and playcounts in iTunes synced across different computers that works in Windows? I've found a Mac-only solution (echodio) but there doesn't seem to be an equivalent option for Windows.

By: OwlBoy

OwlBoy — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 02:05:37 -0800

One option might be placing the library on a network drive and pointing all the copies of iTunes to that. The downside is you won't be able to have more than one copy of iTunes open at once. This could lead to problems.

By: your mildly obsessive average geek

your mildly obsessive average geek — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 02:30:55 -0800

*smacks his forehead* I knew I was missing something vitally important when I posted that question. This will teach me to post to AskMe in a hurry.

Um, the important thing that I missed asking was - a solution to sync ratings etc. that works across the Internet as well?

_{PS: Goes off to flagellate himself}

By: hippybear

hippybear — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 08:56:33 -0800

What about using the Shared Library feature in iTunes? Does that exist in the Windows version? Or does that store the playcount / ratings locally even though the library is on another machine?

(Sharing your music Library is, I think, different from accessing everything from a network drive with all iTunes clients pointed to that as the Library.)

By: hippybear

hippybear — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 09:10:01 -0800

oh, wait... duh... that's not going to work across the internet...

You might look at TuneRanger (not free) or Orb (free)... I don't know if any of those have the transport of metainfo that you require.

By: your mildly obsessive average geek

your mildly obsessive average geek — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 01:33:27 -0800

hippybear - TuneRanger looked very promising, so I mailed them to ask about syncing across the Internet. Turns out syncing across the Internet works only if both PCs are on at the same time and I don't leave my home PC running 24x7.

Back to the drawing board it seems...

By: hippybear

hippybear — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 13:09:07 -0800

(I should add here that ratings I create on my iPod get transferred to my Mac when I sync the device. Maybe that's a workaround, barring any more elegant solution?)

By: your mildly obsessive average geek

your mildly obsessive average geek — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 03:50:29 -0800

hippybear - That would work for songs on my iPod. But I have a fairly low capacity iPod and so most of my listening is on the PC itself, either at work or home.

Trying to use one iPod across 2 itunes installs can be very tricky - not to mention that USB ports are blocked at work.

By: hippybear

hippybear — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 21:08:10 -0800

Well, I'm feeling stupidly obsessed with this problem, so I've been digging a bit more.

You might look at syncOtunes or SuperSync. Those might have what you are looking for.

As a last resort... what about a portable hard drive which has your music files on it, and pointing each of your computers to that Music folder on the portable drive as your Library? I'm not sure exactly how iTunes stores its metadata such as ratings and playcounts, so that might not work, if that information is stored on the machine hard drive and then you just point the library at the hard drive...

By: your mildly obsessive average geek

your mildly obsessive average geek — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 02:18:47 -0800

hippybear - I have to thank you for being stupidly obsessed with this. SuperSync looks like it might be the answer to my prayers. Am testing out the demo version over the next few days, will report back :-)

Thank you! (Ask MeFi Rocks! But then, you knew that anyway :)